My wife and I recently bought a house and the pool was not taken care of for a long time. The water was almost black when we took the cover off. Since then, by adding shock and other chemicals, it got to a medium shade of green and cloudy...we can only see about a 1/4 of the way down if that. We had the water tested, added alkalinity to raise that as well as more shock and algaecide, but the water does not get any better. Our Free Chlorine is extremly low, but I was told not to worry about that this time of year. Should I add some liquid chlorine to raise that up to help the color and cloudiness? Aside from that, what else should I do to get this water cleared up before I have to close it? Is flock the answer?
Green and Cloudy Water
- Thread starter JustinInPa
- Start date
Welcome to TFP.
Chlorine is the answer. Consistent high levels of chlorine. Read Pool School, starting with pool-school/defeating_algae
I'd suggest you ignore about 99.9% of what a pool store tells you. They probably just sold you an overpriced bag of baking soda to raise your alkalinity. Post test results and we can give you better advice.
Chlorine is the answer. Consistent high levels of chlorine. Read Pool School, starting with pool-school/defeating_algae
I'd suggest you ignore about 99.9% of what a pool store tells you. They probably just sold you an overpriced bag of baking soda to raise your alkalinity. Post test results and we can give you better advice.
Well I had a conversation with a General Manager of a local pool store, and he told me the same thing....add chlorine. So he suggested I add 10 gallons of liquid chlorine and 2 bottles of powdered algaecide. He went on to say that I should let the filter run for a couple of hours and then turn it off for 24-36 hours. By then I should have clearer water and be able to vacuum everything off the bottom. Well, my chlorine level is high (My PH is right in line), but my water is still green and cloudy. I'd like to get this cleared up quickly so I can close the pool soon and not have to worry about this in the spring. Any ideas?
If you post a full set of test results, we could give better advice :-D
Welcome to the forum
Welcome to the forum
There is probably a lot of gunk on the bottom. See if you can scoop it out, easiest with a leaf rake (net that's flat across the front, meant for running across the bottom). If you don't get anything that way, you could try vaccuuming. And you will certainly need more chlorine, probably a lot. The reccomendation to turn the filter off and let it settle is assuming that the chlorine kills off all the algae, and if the pool is still green, that probably hasn't happened yet.
--paulr
--paulr